Thomas E. "Tom" Woods, Jr. (born August 1, 1972) is an American historian, political analyst, and author.[1] Woods is a New York Times best-selling author and has published eleven books.[2] He has written extensively on the subjects of American history, contemporary politics, and economics. Woods identifies as a libertarian and a proponent of the Austrian school of economics. He operates LibertyClassroom.com, a pay-for-access educational website that offers audio and video content on topics in history, economics, and philosophy.[3]

Woods was an ISI Richard M. Weaver Fellow in 1995–96.[6] He received the 2004 O.P. Alford III Prize for Libertarian Scholarship and an Olive W. Garvey Fellowship from the Independent Institute in 2003.

He has additionally been awarded two Humane Studies Fellowships and a Claude R. Lambe Fellowship from the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University.[7] His 2005 book, The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy, won the $50,000 first prize in the 2006 Templeton Enterprise Awards.[8]

Woods is co-editor of an eleven-volume collection of articles, Exploring American History: From Colonial Times to 1877.

Woods makes a sharp distinction between paleoconservative thinkers with whom he sympathizes, and neoconservative thinkers. In articles, lectures and interviews Woods traces the intellectual and political distinction between the older conservative, or paleoconservative, school of thought and the neoconservative school of thought.

Of the latter he writes:

The conservative's traditional sympathy for the American South and its people and heritage, evident in the works of such great American conservatives as Richard M. Weaver and Russell Kirk, began to disappear.... [T]he neocons are heavily influenced by Woodrow Wilson, with perhaps a hint of Theodore Roosevelt.... They believe in an aggressive U.S. presence practically everywhere, and in the spread of democracy around the world, by force if necessary.... Neoconservatives tend to want more efficient government agencies; paleoconservatives want fewer government agencies. They generally admire President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his heavily interventionist New Deal policies. Neoconservatives have not exactly been known for their budget consciousness, and you won’t hear them talking about making any serious inroads into the federal apparatus.[16]

In a review of Woods' Politically Incorrect Guide to American History published in The Weekly Standard, historian Max Boot criticized Woods for being a founding member of the League of the South. Boot noted that this organization advocated secession and "counsels 'white Southerners' that they should not 'give control over their civilization and its institutions to another race, whether it be native blacks or Hispanic immigrants'".[17] A winter 2006 Intelligence Report by the Southern Poverty Law Center also criticized Woods' membership in the League, which the report described as "a Southern secessionist group with white supremacist ideology".[18]Eric L. Muller, a professor and associate dean at the University of North Carolina School of Law, wrote that Woods was "a frequent contributor to the League's journal, The Southern Patriot, and has spoken at its conventions"; Muller also wrote that Woods, in an essay for the League's journal (the Southern Patriot), had characterized nineteenth-century abolitionists as "utterly reprehensible agitators who put metaphysical abstractions ahead of prudence, charity, and rationality".[19][20]

Woods replied on the blog LewRockwell.com, writing that when he was 21, he attended a meeting of scholars and journalists interested in starting an organization to assert the legitimate rights of the states. Although as a northerner he preferred the group target the whole nation, he accepted the group's decision to focus on the South. He was "convinced that in spite of those aspects of Southern history that all reasonable people deplore, that there was much of value in Southern civilization that deserved a fair hearing". He also supported the right to secession as "a salutary restraint" on the federal government. He said that for these reasons he maintained an intermittent membership in the League. He played no day-to-day role in the organization and was not responsible for politically incorrect statements he heard were on the League's web site. He wrote that as an Armenian, he saw no reason why Anglo-Celts should not be "allowed to preserve their culture". Woods wrote that "racism" is "a word that is thrown around at everyone who looks cockeyed at Jesse Jackson" and found it "revealing that white supremacist organizations have repeatedly and vocally condemned the League".[21]

Since September 2013, Woods has delivered a daily podcast, The Tom Woods Show, on investment broker Peter Schiff's website. On the podcasts, which are archived on Schiff's website, Woods conducts interviews on economic topics, foreign policy, and history.[22]